EddieDude From Mexico, joined Nov 2003, 4437 posts, RR: 27 Posted (4 years 10 months 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 977 times:
RG, who expects 2003 to be its first profitable year in a long time, is expecting to receive authorization to fly to China in 2004 from Chinese aviation authorities. This follows news that AR will start flying from Buenos Aires to Beijing via Madrid.
In addition, RG will resume flights to South Africa (in cooperation with SA) via Angola. President Da Silva has made a personal request that RG consider extending its service to Mozambique as well.
RG expects to receive two more Boeing 777's shortly.
None of the foregoing is subject to any particular outcome of the merger with JJ. Whether said merger will actually happen is still uncertain.
Copaair737 From , joined today!, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (4 years 10 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 887 times:
But on the topic of RG China and Africa service, it is really interesting. continuing on to Mozambique would be an interesting decision, a market between South Africa must exist, as SA flies GRU-JNB. It is great to see RG starting to get back on its feet.
VRG772 From Brazil, joined Oct 2003, 124 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (4 years 10 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 883 times:
I don't think that Mozambique is good destination to RG. Both Brazil and Mozambique speak portuguese, but the relations between them are not so intense that may justify a flight. Relations between Brazil and Angola are much more intense, and flights between them are very important and profitable, I think.
Flights to JNB had been in RG's plans for a long time, now, let's see if they become real... SAA's flights to Brazil are with a very good load-factor, and now with RG operating in code-share with them, it may get even better...
About China, is something I ever thought that could be very nice to RG. Brazil has a big chinese community, and no flights to China. I just don't know where would the plane make a stop... Sao Paulo-??????-Beijing....
And I don't think RG is thinking about going back to SFO. I think, now, they are thinking about other routes....
The777Man From United States, joined Jul 1999, 3272 posts, RR: 47 Reply 5, posted (4 years 10 months 23 hours ago) and read 720 times:
I think they could extend the JNB service to China; just checked the Great Circle Mapper and JNB-PEK is 7269mi and JNB-PVG is 7320mi and even with the high altitude of JNB, it would probably be possible to fly those routes nonstop with a 777-200ER.
I doubt though that they would get fifth freedom rights by the South African government and I also doubt that a Brazil-China route would be profitable. Is there really enough traffic to warrent a direct flight ? Their flight to NRT has great connections with NH and UA to PEK and PVG.
LatinAviation From Ireland, joined Nov 2003, 1206 posts, RR: 11 Reply 6, posted (4 years 10 months 17 hours ago) and read 605 times:
When RG previously flew to JNB it was over a GRU-JNB-BKK-HKG routing. I wonder if RG retained the fifth freedom routes from JNB; thus, perhaps allowing them to route a China flight over JNB and BKK and retain fifth freedom on those sectors?
Does TAAG still serve Brazil from Luanda? I am sure this is a high-yielding market (oil) and given Petrobras' leadership within the region and strong capital backing, they could probably support the flight itself.
Kempa From Brazil, joined Aug 2003, 364 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 10 months 17 hours ago) and read 585 times:
I imagine the flights between GRU and PEK would stop somewhere in Southern Europe, perhaps as an extension of one of RG existing dailies, but happen only two or three times a week. Almost any city would do, existing routes or not: BCN, MAD, CDG, FCO, ZRH...
Marcopolo747 From Brazil, joined Mar 2001, 460 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (4 years 10 months 10 hours ago) and read 334 times:
The only reasons RG might have to fly to Maputo would be to widen their losses. In the past, the JNB - BKK sector was a code-share with TG. The daily JNB - GRU SA/RG code-share flights are consistently fully booked thanks to the Angolans that come to Brazil to shop. Only a one-stop routing to China would be economically viable. It has been reported that MU is interested in flying to Brazil too.
RG and JJ are showing profits in their 2003 balance sheets, however, RG is technically bankrupt with a US$ 1.0 MM negative net worth, apparently there will be a government bail-out to avoid the merger with TAM.
AF has shown increased interest in TAM to the point of buying part of their stock to bring them to SkyTeam. South America is a hole in that alliance so far.
EddieDude From Mexico, joined Nov 2003, 4437 posts, RR: 27 Reply 11, posted (4 years 10 months 9 hours ago) and read 297 times:
Yes, I also think SkyTeam needs a member in South America. So far, all they have are the flights from MEX (AM), ATL (DL) and CDG (AF) to some cities in South America but no regional partners feeding pax for flights to North America and Europe, so the addition of JJ to the alliance would be an interesting move if the merger with RG does not consummate (besides, JJ has code share agreements with DL already in place, I believe).
In connection with the plans for Mozambique, the article I read only said it was a suggestion made by President Lula to the management of RG and it probably has more to do with political and cultural reasons... I wouldn't expect the route to be profitable.
About the route to China, the new AR flight from EZE to PEK stops in MAD, so RG will probably do something similar. Maybe FRA is an alternative and the flight can be a code share flight with LH, I don't know.
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